Help! Noodles!

It's late! I'm hungry!

How do I cook this!!!!!?????







I can only read the red parts. There are six parts to this thing and "around 4 times as much", "around 2-3 times as much", and "300c.c." isn't enough help!

I'm such a struggler. Outsmarted by Japanese instant noodles! :(

AFF Suzuki Cup Final 2010

The AFF Suzuki Cup 2010 final was contested this week between Malaysia and Indonesia. This is the championship of ASEAN(The Association of Southeast Asian Nations) contested every years. Malaysia had beaten defending champions Vietnam 2-0 in one semifinal while Indonesia defeated The Phillipines by a similar 2-0 score in the other semifinal.

This is an emerging soccer region and while the quality of the football is quite poor (Indonesia and Malaysia are ranked 127 and 144 respectively in the FIFA rankings), tournaments like these make more teams stronger for Asian Championships and World Cup qualifying. Thailand, the leading power in this region, was the sole power for the longest time but now are consistantly knocked off by the other countries in the region. Didn't even make the semis this year after the drew against Laos. LAOS!!!!!

Here are the highlights. There were huge crowds! 90000 in Kuala Lumpur and 100000 in Jakarta!

1st Leg: Kuala Lumpur



2nd leg: Jakarta

Asian Ripoff XCIV - Love Story

Artist: Lam Nhat Tien
Language: Vietnamese

7up Chinese time travel commercial

Remember! Toilet Paper is very important!

Chinese Hurdler doesn't give a fuck!

Can't make it over the first few hurdles, falling behind? So what!!!




Liu Xiang this guy is not!

Asian Ripoff XCIII - PianoMan

Artist: Wang Lee Hom
Language: English!

oooooooh Leehom! SQuueeeeeeeaL!

Sex Education Class For Beijing Elementary Schoolchildren

Source: chinaSMACK

December 9th, at the Hepingli No. 1 Primary School in Dongcheng district of Beijing, during a sexual health education class, the teacher uses a game to teach students how a "sperm" and "ovum" unite after going through multiple obstacles, and even allows them to experience the hardships of a mother's ten month pregnancy.

December 9th, at the Hepingli No. 1 Primary School in Dongcheng district of Beijing, students pretend to be "sperm" during a game.

So what do you think?

Do you think this class is appropriate?

Airport Security - Japanese Style!

That's one pretty smart and dirty old man!

Chinese Homework Assignment!

Source: funny-city

So in school there's an assignment to teach kids about 1870s America. This particular one is about Chinese railway workers and what they would write in a letter back home.

So the student answered appropriately I think!





Translation:
My living conditions here are poor.
The working environments here aren't great either, and there is very little welfare.
But don't worry, every day there are only about 10 people who get into serious injuries, and I'm very careful.
We opened a little shop, the business isn't very popular.
Even though my english isn't very good, I can still kind of understand the white people.
I hope I can succeed. I will be working really hard here, and watching my health.
Are you guys well?
I miss you guys, hope we can see can see each other again.

A Famous Philippines Victory

The Philippines aren't really a sporting nation. Other than Manny Pacquiao, there's not much to cheer around in the international sports scene.

Ranked 151st in the FIFA Rankings and barely qualfying for the 8-team AFF Suzuki Cup SE Asian football tournament, they pulled off the shock of all shocks. Beating host and defending champions Vietnam in Hanoi!

Q & A with Korea Expert David Kang

With all the recent international attention on North Korea, there have been a lot of questions about the future of the Korean peninsula. Some of the coverage has been pretty sensational, with some even referring to the recent attack on Yeonpyeong island as "World War III." That's getting a little carried away!

In light of all the crazy speculation and uncertainty in the air, KoreAm recently posted a great Q & A piece with Korea expert David Kang, director of USC's Korean Studies Institute, who took submitted reader questions and answered them in a concise, reader-friendly manner. It really does clear up the situation. So have a read and don't panic!

Korean Expert Q&A Session

Create The Caption #4

Create the caption for the Korean baseball team receiving their gold medals at the 2010 Asian Games!

Every Anime Opening Ever Made

They're all the same! They're always running somewhere! Where are they going?

How many movies can you name?

2010 Asian Games Opening Ceremonies

We all know how impressive the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics Opening Ceremonies were.

Same idea here in Guangzhou. More flying on wires!

Part 1:


Part 2:


Part 3:


Part 4:


Part 5:


Part 6:


Part 7:


Part 8:


Part 9:


Part 10:


Part 11:

Rick Mercer In Shanghai

Few weeks ago, The Rick Mercer Report went to Shanghai.

Here are a couple of clips. Hilarious!





Nothing beats FREE Poutine!

Create The Caption #3

See if you can create a caption for this picture of Tiger Woods and Lee Westwood learning how to handle their swords in Shanghai.

Asian Ripoff XCII - I Surrender

Artist: Terry Lin
Language: Mandarin

Probably the best voice in Asia today.

Mandarin:



English:

Soccer: Woman's World Cup U-17

Did you know that at the 2010 FIFA Women's U-17 World Cup held in Trinidad and Tobago, three Asian nations made it to the semifinals?

South Korea defeated Spain 2-1 in one semifinal.

Japan defeated North Korea also by the score of 2-1 in the other semifinal, aided by this amazing winning goal.



Look at the moves! WOW!

And now the final. Yet another epic Japan-South Korean classic. Who do you think will win?

China 2030

Maybe with tonight's elections results and the Republicans taking back some of the power, the American people have seen the light?

Create The Caption #2

See if you can create a caption for these girls from the recent Korean Grand Prix!

Asian Ripoff XCI - I Can't Wait

Artist: Cheico Kawabe
Language: Japanese

Pretty catchy :)

English Teachers - Episode 3 "Hail Mary"

PANIC!

Create The Caption #1

Going to try something here. We provide a photo, you come up with hilarious captions and we present the winner, and a new pic in a few days!

GO!

Endhiran Trailer

Ah Bollywood!

English Teachers - Episode 2 "(Un)equilibrium"

Tom is distracted by a new teacher and the school is in trouble.

The Warrior's Way

Wow! Looks great!

Asian director and lead! Debut director too, never heard of him!
How did he get such a budget!

English Teachers - Episode 1 "First Days Suck"

Those of you who have taught English in Japan or intend to will find this series very funny. This is the first episode, I look forward to new episodes in the future.

Woman Attacks Police and Camera Crew

In Hainan China, there was a camera crew filming with police doing a feature on checkstops. According to an account by journalist Xiao Jiang for Hainan TV news station: On the night of the 20th September I picked up a video camera and went out with a female colleague. We went to Binhai Road near the Haikou Wenhua Hotel to interview police investigating drink drivers at the scene. At around 11:30 at night the police stopped a car suspected of being driven by a drunk driver and carried out a spot check. Xiao Jiang and the female colleague then interviewed the suspected drunk driver.

Suddenly, a woman from the crowd of people watching rushed forward, charged towards Xiao Jiang saying: Your video camera filmed me, why do you want to film me?

Hilarity ensues!

Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen

More Donnie Yen goodness!

Gun Size Matters!

Nothing like mindless violence and a hot girl.

And of course a predictable ending!

Dehli 2010: XIX Commonwealth Games

Absolute disaster! It's sad but every bad stereotype about India is being shown for the world to see. Corruption is clear as the games have gone over budget, the athletes village is filthy. Terrorist attacks, bridges collapsing, holes in roofs, bad roads on and on.

You hear racist things about India all the time, this doesn't help.



That ladder doesn't look very safe!



Just embarrassing.

If you were in Vancouver earlier this year, be proud. Those Olympics were amazing!

Times are tough all over

I saw this monk, robes and sandals and all, at my local Wal-Mart in Providence, RI. He was holding a job application form. Times must be very tough indeed.

EA SPORTS FIFA 11: We Are 11 TV Ad

Very cool! They couldn't find any Arsenal players to appear in the commercial that they had a team of entirely Asian chicks? :D

Red panda cubs in Japan

Japan’s Chiba Zoological Park has released a video of its two cute red panda (also known as lesser panda) cubs which were born on July 3. The names of the baby pandas will be decided on Sept 19 via a special poll by the zoo visitors.

Japanese cityscapes with monster-sized wildlife

Source: Pink Tenticle

Artist Shuichi Nakano's "Searching for Paradise" paintings depict Godzilla-sized animals towering over the urban sprawl of Japan.

These are so awesome! Japan should remake all the Gozilla movies with all the CGI available today. Doesn't even have to be Godzilla, could be these animals! Don't let Hollywood keep making cheesy movies!

Motion sensors, 3-D games grab limelight at Tokyo Game Show

Source: Japan Times

Japan's biggest video game show kicked off Thursday at the Makuhari Messe convention center in Chiba, with motion-sensor game systems and three-dimensional display images drawing the most attention.

At the four-day Tokyo Game Show, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. and Microsoft Corp. presented game systems that let users control the action with their entire bodies, in an apparent response to Nintendo's Wii hand-held motion-sensor controller.

At the Sony booth, many tried out a wireless remote controller, PlayStation Move, that detects the user's movements via both a hand-held sensor and a camera.

PS Move, which is played on the PlayStation 3, enables users to "get in the space of the video game and play intuitively," said Hiroshi Kawano, SCE Japan president, who added that Sony aims to attract novice gamers. The controller goes on sale in October.

Microsoft Corp. is also stealing the limelight with its newest motion control system, called Kinect, for the firm's Xbox 360 game console. The system goes on sale in November.

Unlike Wii and PS Move, the Kinect sensor system for the Xbox 360 machine doesn't require a hand-held controller. A camera, depth sensor and multiarray microphone set up in front of the users detect the movements and location of the players, and match the characters' actions in the video game.

So I went onto youtube and found some trailers for new games.
I won't embed them as it will reduce the quality of game in the small space that I have here. So here are the links. Which games do you like?

Michael Jackson: The Experience
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifyz_f_m5hs

Marvel vs Capcom 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhfecdbLDWY

Grand Turismo 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bw0e0nObeZM

EA Sports MMA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsaryUnsIKw

MegaMan Universe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGB72UwdCV0

Resident Evil 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOF6-LsZbKA

Final Fantasy XIV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHHS6jJjVjs

Castlevania: Lord of Shadows
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmvwvAMFYWs

USC and Hawaii Five-O

I actually kind of excited about the new show's premiere on Monday :)

Taiwan Commercial: Boyfriend Working Overtime

OOOPS!

Asian Ripoff XC - Can't Help Falling In Love With You

Artist: F4
Language: Mandarin

Thanks PerryPie!

Football Brawl: Beijing Guo An vs. Singapore Young Lions

Last night at the Jalan Besar stadium during a Singapore Professional Football League match, a player brawl incident between both the Beijing Guo An team and the Young Lions team occurred, causing the game to be ended by the referee. The Football Association of Singapore has already gotten involved, initiating an investigation into this rare incident of violence on the pitch.

This is the first brawl between players to occur this year in the Singapore League. At the 89th minute of last night’s match between the Beijing Guo An team and Young Lions, for unknown reasons, the two sides suddenly clashed.



Seemed innocent enough at first then out of control.

Of course it's the refs fault, absolutely clueless. Watch the tackle at 1:52. The ref rushes up and gives a YELLOW CARD! SO stupid. He should have gave out red cards at the beginning of the video and none of this would have happened.

Hello Kitty Online

It's the official launch! This is like World of Warcraft For Girls!

Hello Kitty Online

Kia Soul + Michelle Wie

I'd hit it - and twice on Sundays. Then again, I'm a white sexist pig who thinks Michelle Wie is more interesting as a sex object than as an athlete (insofar as golf qualifies as "athletics").

The Best Cheesy Action Scene You'll see Today ..... or EVER!

The ultimate movie scene of India. This is a scene from the most expensive telegu movie Magadheera!! :D

It's JUST a little over the top!

Naked Support for China National Basketball Team

Han Yifei one of the school beauties of Beijing Film Academy promised to pose fully naked for 8 pictures if China National Basketball Team would advance to the second round from the group at the basketball world championship in Turkey. China without the great Yao Ming had almost no shot at advancing so it was a safe promise.

At the FIBA World Championships in Turkey, teams are divided into Groups of 6, play a round-robin and the top 4 advance. So you'd think a team would have to be at least 2-3 to make it, defeating the 5th and 6th place team. China went 1-4.

BUT!

China surprisingly made the knockout round when Cote d'Ivoire defeated Puerto Rico 88-79, a game that took place before China faced Turkey.

Cote d'Ivoire needed to win by 12 points, though, and the nine-point margin gave China the edge as all three teams finished with 1-4 records. China finished with a positive point differential, while Puerto Rico and Cote d'Ivoire each allowed one more point than they scored.

So there was a rumor saying that Han Yifei posted at her blog to want people not to take it seriously as it was just a casual remark, which had ever caused a stir. But Han clarified it immediately in an interview, and confirmed that she would keep her words.

When Han was questioned whether she used this as a publicity stunt to promote herself, she said, “Everyone has his or her own way to express their feelings. I just did my own way.”

So here are the eight pictures!

















So? Is this acceptable? She is naked alright but if this was a bet that you won, would this be enough? Or would you want to see more?

Topless Nissin Cup Noodles Light commercial

While surfing yourtube I found this one. You guys all like Cup of Noodles right? :)



Would this commercial ever be allowed in America?

Sailor Moon re-runs on HK television

Source: chinaSMACK

A commercial for a live action television show of the anime “Sailor Moon” is thoroughly criticized by Chinese netizens who find it horrifying and shocking. The TV show, appearing on Hong Kong’s J2 TVB network, appears to be a re-imagining of the Sailor Moon characters having matured into middle age with familial responsibilities. Chinese take offense at the ages of the actors as well as the weight of one of them.



[script from the video； scene occurs in the summer of 2010]

Mother: [to child] Remember, when attending class study hard!

Woman: Serena (Usagi Tsukino)， Mr. Wong wanted you to have this.

Mother, now identified as Serena (Sailor Moon): Ami? Rei?

Serena: Moon prism power!

Ami Mizuno: Mercury power!

Rei Hino: Mars power!

All together: Uniform change!

Female announcer: Sailor Moon, premiering this Friday, broadcasting from Monday to Friday, 6 P.M. Let [Hong Kong television station] J2 accompany you on all of your little girl dreams!

Waiter: It’s been a long time since I last last saw you three; is discounted dim sum alright?

I did some further investigation and in fact they are not creating a live-action Sailor Moon show but in fact they are just re-broadcasting the old anime for the newer generation today. The commercial itself is trying to show how the typical Sailor Moon fan is older today and this re-airing of the show will being out the old Sailor Moon in them.

I kind of like the commercial but I do understand how all you Sailor Mars fans got scared for a second there!

Taiwan unveils birth-boosting slogan

Source: Yahoo!

Taiwan's government on Wednesday unveiled a new slogan aimed at encouraging couples to have more babies, in its latest bid to boost the island's dwindling birth rate which is among the world's lowest.

"Children -- our best heirloom" was chosen via an on-line poll after garnering nearly a third of the 31,000 responses, followed by "happiness is very easy, baby one two three" and "it's good to have a child", said the interior ministry.

The slogan's writer will get a cash prize of one million Taiwan dollars (31,250 US) while the phrase will be printed on government literature, it said in a statement.

Taiwan's authorities have been offering various incentives in an unsuccessful bid to boost birth rates, amid growing concerns that a severe manpower shortage will trigger serious social and economic problems.

The island's capital Taipei, where birth rates dived to an all-time low in 2009 with fewer than 20,000 babies being born, will start paying couples 20,000 Taiwan dollars for every newborn from next year.

Taiwan's overall birth rate stood at 8.29 births per 1,000 people last year, according to the ministry. That compares with a global average of more than 20 births per 1,000 people, according to the United Nations.

Last year 191,310 babies were born in Taiwan, down 3.74 percent from the previous year.

I don't know if this will work, just a slogan? And just the slogan winner get a prize? How about every new baby gets a grant or something, that might entice parents to have a kid!

Or how about a mascot?



I don't know, people are having less babies because raising one is such hard work. Only one of two kids is enough. I'm planning to have a baby in 2012 and I'll be 33 by then. After that, one more at most cause I married late.

2010: A Case Odyssey

Phone commercials get weirder and weirder.

Wie Wins!

Source: Winnipeg Free Press

Michelle Wie’s career has been long on hype but short on victories, but her performance at St. Charles proves the victories will begin to pile up.
As finishes go, it was picture-perfect.

The pristine scene at the 18th green: Michelle Wie, the most famous of the bunch, taking a victory lap home with a two-shot cushion on the field at the CN Canadian Women's Open. Thousands of golf groupies bringing her home. Dusk just beginning to fall.

Not a breath of wind on a cool, late summer afternoon. Dead quiet except for a lone Canada goose, far overhead, going the wrong way.

But it was Wie making all the birdies at St. Charles. Three straight at 13, 14 and 15 clinched the second LPGA title of the 20-year-old's once can't-miss career.

It may be the victory that finally puts Wie on the champion's map, after her skyrocketing emergence as a pre-teen phenom from Honolulu a decade ago. After all, Wie was to be the LPGA's Tiger, the face of women's golf in the 21st century.

Absolutely. This is the face of the LPGA. She needs to start dominating the tour in order to get eyeballs watching again. Her career has been a disaster so far, from overbearing parents, to playing with men at 15 to a college life to just not being committed. Maybe with this win and all that in the past, she's now mature and can fully concentrate on a golfing career. Ochoa is gone, Sorenstam is gone, women's golf needs a star instead of all these unpronouncable Korean names. Wie winning majors will save the LPGA.

Impressing White Dudes!

Japanese makeup commercial to impress white dudes only!

Kid torches his own house, OVER GUNDAM

Source: Yahoo

A Japanese man has admitted to burning down his family home after his mother threw away some of his favourite robot toys from the "Gundam" animation series.

Yoshifumi Takabe, aged 30 and living with his mother, said he had become suicidal after she dumped some of the robots, of which he had enough to fill 300 boxes stacked to the ceiling, the Sports Nippon said Wednesday.

The blaze on August 9 last year completely destroyed their two-storey wooden house in Kasai, Hyogo prefecture, but no one was injured.

"The Gundam figures are like the partners I spend my life with," he reportedly said after pleading guilty at western Kobe's District Court. "I wanted to die with them in a fire if they were to be thrown out."

The Mobile Suit Gundam series, based on an animation TV series which started in the late 1970s, is about space wars fought by gigantic robots.

I won't totally blame the kid here. Parents just can't just ignore things and let it get out of control. 300 boxes! Obviously he like Gundam! Perhaps mom should have said something at 50 boxes? 100 boxes? If it's a concern, put a stop to it. It's been 30 years! At this point, it's too late and drastic actions will result in drastic responses.

Asian Ripoff LXXXIX - Dschinghis Khan

Chinese version of a classic German song (for the Soviet Olympics)!

Artist: Da Zhangwei
Language: Mandarin

And if you have absolutely no idea what this song is.. here's a recent version to open Eurovision 2009!



Thanks PerryPie for reminding me of this wonderful song!

Have you ever been a mascot!?

Source: AsiaOne

JAPAN - A company in Konosu, Saitama Prefecture, that specialises in making full-body costumes is riding a wave of popularity for adorable yuru-kyara mascots.

Yuru-kyara are cute, relaxed and unsophisticated--literally "loose" (yurui). As an increasing number of such mascot characters are promoting localities or other entities, the small firm Funny Craft is growing to be one of the leading companies in the industry.

The firm boasts "a lovely look, exactly the same as imagined" when filling orders for mascot suits. It receives a wide range of orders ranging from famous manga characters to a mascot for a prefectural police force. "Our full-body suits fit you so well. They aren't 'loose' at all," said the firm's president, Junjiro Kamijo, 69.

Five employees work steadily at its about 500-square-metre factory, which is filled with paper patterns and basic costume parts made of polystyrene foam.

In its about 30-year-long history, the firm has made thousands of full-body suits. Five years ago, it began to receive orders in excess of its capacity, and sometimes could not accept new orders.

.....more

I love mascots, they're so cute! I'm one of those who always runs up to greet and hug mascots!

-------------

Recently, Japanese TV aired this hard-hitting investigative report about Japan’s various police mascots:



Their research team contacted police offices across the nation and determined that there are at least 42 different police mascot characters in Japan. Some of the police mascots are national, some are prefectural, and a few are for city/town police forces.
What exactly is the point of having cops dress up in weird mascot costumes? Here is a ranking of the top issues they try to spread awareness about:

1. Bank Transfer Fraud
2. Traffic Safety
3. General Crime Prevention
4. Pickpocketing
5. Purse Snatching

It might seem pretty stupid to have police officers assigned to mascot duty, but those wacky costumes can be pretty useful whenever the police want to distribute fliers. A mascot draws everyone’s attention, and people who would otherwise ignore police officers seem more willing to approach them when a mascot is around. Even if people throw away the fliers without reading them, there is a chance that they will still remember encountering the mascots, many of whom have names that are puns based on the message they are trying to promote.
Issues 2 to 5 are focused at children and the general public, but the #1 issue is targeted at elderly people. For years now, telephone fraudsters claiming to be relatives in distress have scammed many elderly people into sending them large sums of money. Many ATM’s in Japan now have posters featuring mascot characters that warn users about scams, and several police forces have been sending their mascots to post offices and banks to spread awareness among the elderly.

-----

Are there alot of mascots where you live for different sort of things? Have you ever been a mascot and what was it like? Tell us your best mascot stories!

Have you ever been a mascot?

Astroboy Poster

A large Astroboy poster overlooks a Japanese salaryman waiting for a train at the local train station

Japanese Girls and The First Pitch

You've all been to a baseball game and usually they trot out some celebrity to throw out the first pitch.

In Japan alot of the time, it's a hawt music star.

But even though it's just one pitch for fun, it's taken quite seriously and the girls practice as best they can. One has to have good posture and technique to throw a ball 60 feet.

So here are some examples.

We'll start with BoA



Not good technique, not enough leg kick and spun to fast, ball goes left.

Next is Ueto Aya



Again, too quick and fast hip turn causing the ball to go left.
At least the mascots are CUTE!

Here is Aki Hoshino



and.. well...nobody's watching the ball here.

on we go..

You see all these girls failed cause they had the incorrect technique.
This is how it's done, like a real pitcher.

First is Maki Horikita



That's good form, hands raised high in the air, leg kick, even a delay and ... just a bit short but pretty good!

Here's Figure Skating World Champion Miki Ando



Again, arms raised over the head, a leg kick and a delay. Very nice strike!

Next is Kwon Yuri



Woohoo sidewinder! Almost a strike.

But the best one BY FAR is...Lee Jung Hyun



I almost died laughing seeing that pose, and the pitch was perfect too!



So that's the trick. Get into a set position, arms raised high in the air, legkick, delay and throw.

Don't Sit For Too Long!

Source: Orange

Park officials in China have found a way to stop people from hogging their benches for too long - by fitting steel spikes on a coin-operated timer.

If visitors at the Yantai Park in Shangdong province, eastern China, linger too long without feeding the meter, dozens of sharp spikes shoot through the seat.

The spikes are too short to cause any serious harm - but long enough to prevent people from sitting on them comfortably.

Park bosses got the idea from an art installation in Germany where sculptor Fabian Brunsing created a similar bench as a protest against the commercialisation of modern life.

"He thought he was exaggerating. He didn't foresee that a very practical country like China might actually use them for real," said one critic.

Parks in China suffer from chronic overcrowding at weekends when millions of people try to escape the country's teeming cities.

"We have to make sure the facilities are shared out evenly and this seems like a fair way to stop people grabbing a bench at dawn and staying there all day," said one park official.

It's mostly young couple hogging the benches and making out.. so I don't know about the effectiveness of these so-called spikes.

Chinese set new world record for human dominoes

More than 10,000 people have set a new Guinness World record for "human dominoes" in China's Inner Mongolia, toppling a record set a decade earlier in Singapore by more than several hundred.

The 10,276, mostly students seated cross-legged and falling backwards in a line that snaked across an enormous square, took 1 hour and 20 minutes to set the new record on Thursday.

"The human dominoes were a success. The new record is 10,267 people. This is a new Guinness World record," Guinness' official Wu Shaohong said, in images broadcast on state television.

The ceremony in the Inner Mongolian city of Ordos kicked off with Chinese basketball star and former NBA player Mengke Bateer passing a basketball to the first domino in line, who then all fell backward in turn.


The participants trained more than four hours each for three days in preparation for the event, China's official Xinhua news agency said.

Previously, the human domino record was held by 9,234 students in Singapore in 2000.

Ramen shop closes; too popular

Source: Daily Yomiuri

A ramen shop where customers line up for hours to eat a bowl of noodles has decided to close its doors. The reason: customers line up for hours to eat their noodles.

Rokurinsha in Shinagawa Ward will close on Aug. 29 in response to repeated complaints from neighbors about customers blocking traffic, smoking on the street and talking loudly. "We don't want to cause any more problems for our neighbors," the shop said.

Rokurinsha, a six-minute walk from JR Osaki Station and located on a shopping street next to a residential area, opened in April 2005. Its tsuke-men, thick noodles dipped in a rich sauce, has attracted ramen-lovers and the media, and has been featured several times in magazines and on TV. As soon as the shop opens, a line starts to form.

According to Matsufuji Shokuhin, a company based in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, that runs Rokurinsha, the line stretches to about 100 people on weekends, and waiting times of two hours are common. The thick noodles take longer to boil, exacerbating the long waits.

The shop has tried to solve the problem by opening early, or changing the way customers line up, but failed to come up with a good solution.

.....more

Failed to come up with a good situation? They failed to do the most basic thing when things are going well, sometimes too well.

JACK up the price! Find out who your real loyal customers are! If the noodles are really good people will still come and if people leave because it's too expensive then no more lineups!

Come on Japanese people, be business saavy!

racist graffiti spree hits Vancouver strip mall

Source: Vancouver Sun

Richmond RCMP are looking for two white males who went on a twisted, sometimes racist rant with a felt marker at an Asian strip mall.

The two men, who were caught on security cameras, filled two levels of a stairwell with felt marker graffiti, which included threats against police and racial slurs against Asians:

One of the suspects wrote "F--k the Chinese" next to a Swastika, and wrote "KKK" beneath it.

They also wrote "187 a pig" and "187 on an undercover cop" and "F--k the police."

The term "187" is used by some police agencies to refer to a homicide, so the graffiti could be read as a threat against police.

The scrawls have all the earmarks of a tweaking crackhead indulging in a stream-of-consciousness rant.

"I just got out of jail and I'm high," one of them wrote.

The word "jailbird" also appears a few times. A number of individuals are also named in the kind sophomoric trash-talk one finds scrawled on high school bathroom stalls.

If it's on camera why weren't the arrested on the spot? Isn't anyone watching the live video? Aren't cars in the parking lot supposed to be protected? Is the security guard asleep?

And how does this happen in Richmond. Isn't it 90% Chinese? Should these guys be pummeled? Aren't there any eyewitnesses? Where is everyone!?

LPGA -- eewwww!

LPGA has long been in decline because it doesn't have a Tiger Woods, a star that will the casual fan to tune in. Some have blamed the million Koreans that are now on tour making Americans not watch. I tend to agree with this. People tune out not because the players are Korean but because there is no dominant Korean. In the days of Se-Ri Pak she was the one dominant Korean and was very popular as she battled the like of Sorenstam and Webb week after week.

But now, one week it's In-Young Kim, another week it's Song-Hee Kim, another week Jee-Young Lee? Have I lost you? I don't blame you, I've forgotten their names already too.

So now the LPGA has hope! There's a new star from Taiwan who will beat these Koreans.
Yani Tseng has a big lead at the British Open which would mean her 2nd major title of the season. She is apparently Sorenstam's understudy and is looking to dominate. Finally a star to rise to the top. There's one problem though. She looks like a fucking dude! LPGA can't market that!



Not good, this might be the death of the LPGA is this dude keeps winning.

Michelle!! Where are you? Get your act together!

Violinist plays Mario in real-time

Amazing! :)

No North Koreans in Australia!

Source: Fail.com

This special World Cup feature in the Illawa Mercury, showcasing the diversity of the Australian region, has one peculiar photo representing the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. So there are NO North Koreans in Illawa right!? Really?

Asian Ripoff LXXXVIII - Joe Le Taxi

Artist: Priscilla Chan
Language: Cantonese

One of those old ripoffs I listened to as a kid but totally forgot about til now :)

TOO YELLOW!